This qualifies as a bit of a vague, not totally well-established-in-a-statistical-way trend; but the fact that it exists at all for one single person in America is, I believe, newsworthy. Families are taking out tens of thousands of dollars worth of loans in order to pay for private kindergarten for their whelps. That is some fucked up shit.

I'm no human calculator of financial wizardry, but if you are taking out loans for private kindergarten, then you will also have to take out loans for private elementary school, and private middle school, and private high school, and you better hope your kid gets some crazy super-scholarship to college that includes like a check for $100k, because you will have a shitload worth of loans to pay off before the kid even sets foot on campus. Just seems like a lot of loans to the point that you are surely financially illiterate to a criminal degree, is all I'm saying. Annamaria Andriotis of Smart Money reports:

It used to be that families first signed up for education loans when their child enrolled in college, but a growing number of parents are seeking tuition assistance as soon as kindergarten. Though data is scarce, private school experts and the small number of lenders who provide loans for kindergarten through 12th grade say pre-college loans are becoming more popular. Your Tuition Solution, one of the largest lenders in this space, says demand for the upcoming year is already up: This month, the total dollar amount of loans families requested rose 10% compared to a year ago

What with private kindergartens being the worst thing ever in terms of child development and the student loan bubble being the worst thing ever in terms of the financial prospects of students, this seems like a "hot trend" for all good parents to "keep an eye on."